A morning at its wheel was never going to be enough. The roads that made up a decent part of the Mallorca launch route were classic hot hatch country, weaving for mile after mile in and out of the island’s rocky northern face. But they were busy, narrow and slippery with morning dew, and even after turning back and retracing the route in the opposite direction, I didn’t feel like I’d fully understood the car at all.
That was just over a year ago. I’d been looking forward to driving the Alpine A290 ever since I went to the grand unveiling of the show car inside the vast Brabazon hanger in Filton, Bristol, where all 10 British Concordes were built. That event was a huge production. Alpine’s then F1 drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were there to demonstrate the outlandish looking show car with its fanciful central driving position, each of them tugging away at the handbrake as they navigated the makeshift course projected onto the hanger floor to make the thing look a bit more dramatic.
It was a big deal. After the A110 and all its critical acclaim (let’s ignore the sluggish sales for the time being…), what on earth was Alpine going to do next? We knew it wasn’t going to be a 911 rival or any other thoroughbred sports car, but something intended to sell in numbers such cars never could. Like me you probably weren’t itching for Alpine to build a little electric hatchback, but it still needed to be worthy of the badge. I tried to keep an open mind.
